Engaging the Old Testament: How to Read Biblical Narrative, Poetry, and Prophecy Well

by Dominick S. Hernández

This introductory textbook invites students into the depths and riches of the Old Testament and shows the Old Testament's relevance for Christian readers. Rising Latino evangelical Old Testament scholar Dominick Hernández demonstrates how to read Old Testament texts well and put the ancient written word into practice in our day and age.

Hernández shows that four core commitments put readers on the right trajectory for reading and applying the Old Testament to their (1) reading humbly, (2) reading successively, (3) reading entirely, and (4) reading deliberately. Students will learn how to become better readers of the text and how to read select Old Testament passages well, paying attention to how the biblical authors used rhetorical techniques to provoke readers to action.

Genres: Christian, Old Testament, Biblical Studies

320 pages, Paperback

Published April 18, 2023

Reviews

[Kristjan · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are a lot of approaches to reading the Old Testament and all of them have their limits. As a collection of text within a variety of genres and translated from a different language and culture, it is fairly easy to mistake the intended message of the original scribe, especially when you break in down into small pericopes that are divorced of the surrounding context and inserted directly into today’s culture. Engaging the Old Testament goes in the other direction, suggesting a holistic reading of each text in order to recover the original context and message as interpreted by the original audience.

The book begins with instruction on How to read the Old Testament; which is to be humble and open to new interpretations as well as a commitment to reading the whole text as the original redactor intended in order to be how each part interacts with each other. “We cannot dismiss or evade any part of these texts for any reason and are compelled to engage with them as we would the New Testament.” This can be challenging when faced with particularly difficult stories involving violence et al where the temptation to gloss over or even ignore seems counter to the Christian understanding of a Loving God. In other words, there is still an important message in there and the ignored text is important to teasing that out and understanding the whole. The last 2/3rds of the book provides several solid examples of how this works; the only caveat being the presumption or mental framework (aka bias) that would help resolve the intentional tension created by the text and unlock the complete message. For me the key is my understanding of a loving Creator and an intentional plan for reconciling a fallen world to Himself (YMMV).

1. What’s the Old Testament “God” to Do with Me?
2. The Commitment to Really Reading
3. From Talking Tablets to Tabernacle to Today
4. Reading from Today Back to the Text
5. The Confessions of a Close Reader
6. How the Old Testament is Told: Narrative
7. Learning to Love the Law
8. Seeds of Remembrance
9. Redeeming Rahab the Conqueror
10. Why Is the Book of Judges So Weird?
11. Hannah and Ruth: Mothers of the Monarchy
12. King David’s True Legacy
13. Divided Allegiances to Divided Kingdom: The Tragedy of King Solomon
14. How Biblical Poets Wrote Poetry: The Importance of Parallelism
15. How Biblical Poets Wrote Poetry: The Proliferation of Metaphors
16. Metaphors and Retributive Justice in the Poetry of Job
17. How Prophets Prophesy
18. How Engage Poetic Prophecy
19. Who Is Isaiah’s Suffering Servant?

I was given this free advance reader copy (ARC) ebook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.
#EngagingtheOldTestament #NetGalley

[Dennis Nicholson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Book Review from Eleutheria, Liberty Divinity Journal (vol. 7, no. 2)

Dominick Hernández received his PhD in Hebrew Bible from Bar-Ilan University and is professor of Old Testament and Semitic Languages at Biola's Talbot School of Theology. The aim of this work is to be a resource that promotes the hearing of the Scriptures and "project a 'draught of systematization'...to encourage Bible student to persevere in their reading" (278). Hernández does this through using classical literature references at the beginning of each chapter and throughout the book. The book is broken down into nineteen digestible chunks, spending the first six by introducing the reader to his approach and the Old Testament as a whole. The rest focus on the interwoven and contextualized genres (law, history, poetry, prophets). He concludes by calling on he work of MobyDick to describe the richness of the Old Testament and to curb our tendency to seek omniscience in seeking a comprehensive hermeneutic approach before hearing God through the Scriptures. The book is aimed at literary enthusiasts who desire to improve their reading of the Old Testament. To that aim, we recommend this literary contribution to the field of biblical studies

[Benjamin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I imagine that the publishers figured this would be a good textbook to accompany other reading for an Old Testament survey class. However, I find it hard to imagine that any modern teacher of OT Survey will not already have included this kind of material in his lectures. That's not to say it's a bad book. It's well written. It would be helpful for someone who is trying to improve their own understanding of the Old Testament. But there's nothing new here. The work is heavily dependent on the work of Meir Sternberg and Adele Berlin. Sternberg's work is approaching 40, and Berlin's is nearing 30. If you want to learn more about reading the OT responsibly, this is a good book. But the information has been around for a while.

I liked the book. I just don't see it as being assigned reading in many classes.

[Douglas Fyfe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Full review forthcoming but in brief, I enjoyed many parts of the book. The first six chapters were great, and spoke to the topic well, and from the heart. I feel like the rest of the book was a bit more of a grind and tangential to the topic and/or a reworking of previously published material (his work on Job and Proverbs), although the last three were more consistent with the topic.
I can’t see this book being used as a set text, although some selections might be used as wonderful examples of how to read closely.

[Allison Wise · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5! Well done and pretty helpful! Not life changing, but I enjoyed it and gleaned many things from its pages!